Best Organic and/or Fair Trade Chinese Green Teas?

Made from leaves that have not been oxidized.


Mar 1st, '09, 21:21
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Best Organic and/or Fair Trade Chinese Green Teas?

by Kale-Good » Mar 1st, '09, 21:21

I'm interested to hear from organically-minded Chinese green aficionados on which tea sellers (and organic Chinese Greens) are their favorites.

Lastly, if you feel like ranking them, that would be super-cool!

P.S. One of our local shops in Portland, OR, Townsend Tea, has a single estate Tai Mu San that I'm pretty nutty about. (Unfortunately it's not listed on their site).

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Mar 1st, '09, 23:29
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by Space Samurai » Mar 1st, '09, 23:29

I have only had a few, but I always thought that the Jade Cloud from Rishi was a very good tea.

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Mar 1st, '09, 23:55
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by gingkoseto » Mar 1st, '09, 23:55

Space Samurai wrote:I have only had a few, but I always thought that the Jade Cloud from Rishi was a very good tea.

Shameless self promotion...
Nice review and photos. The tea looks very tempting with lovely silver tips!

About organic and fair trade, a problem is, I guess most farmers in China never heard of the certification system. Internet actually largely promotes fair trade. Nowadays many people buy from farmers or first hand dealers through internet, and therefore more profits will go to the farmers instead of being diluted in rounds of trades.

Many products within Chinese market have province government or national government organic certification, but most of them are the "brand name" products, which are usually produced by larger companies, very much over-priced, and therefore not so much fair-trade. Most products directly purchased from farmers or first hand dealers don't have any certification. But usually a tea can't be good without "clean" cultivation.
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Mar 2nd, '09, 01:19
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by devites » Mar 2nd, '09, 01:19

I too am a organic lover and i order most of my tea from rishi. I don't drink very many chinese greens, but I can reccomend some other good chinese teas from them.
Black: China Breakfast Blend and Keemun
Oolong: Wuyi
Green: Jade Cloud
White: Silver Needles

Mar 2nd, '09, 23:48
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by Kale-Good » Mar 2nd, '09, 23:48

Devites, Space Samurai, and Gingko: thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

All you looky-loos - come out and tell us what you like.

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Mar 4th, '09, 10:58
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by edgar_k » Mar 4th, '09, 10:58

I've only recently gotten into Chinese greens but have always gone with organic wherever I could.

The first Chinese green I tried was a gift, Special Teas' "Fine Lung Ching Organic (#523)." Very nutty and quite good. They have a handful of other organic Chinese greens that look interesting.

The best I've had so far is the 2008 organic Tai Ping Hou Kui from Seven Cups. Pricey at ~$1.19 / gram, but very good and a little goes a long way (five to seven leaves in my 180mL guywan will last a good seven or eight infusions).

Mar 5th, '09, 12:02
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by Hyllan » Mar 5th, '09, 12:02

If you like Japanese greens I'd really recommend SpecialTeas' "China Clouds and Mist Organic". It's a Chinese green, but with a rather vegetal touch. Haven't tried any of SpecialTeas other organic greens though.

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Mar 5th, '09, 16:18
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by woozl » Mar 5th, '09, 16:18

Harney's organic Dao Ren Mao Feng
“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone: “so I ca’n’t take more.”
“You mean you ca’n’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”

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Mar 5th, '09, 16:52
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by Chip » Mar 5th, '09, 16:52

Rishi ...
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!

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Mar 5th, '09, 21:32
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by TokyoB » Mar 5th, '09, 21:32

Chinese organic tea - how do you feel about teas which only have the Chinese organic certification vs those which have a US or European certification? I'm not sure how much difference there may be between these various certifications but from what little I've been able to learn, it seems that the European/EU cerifications are probably the most strict in terms of chemicals tested, etc. Any thoughts?
TokyoB

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Mar 5th, '09, 21:38
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by Chip » Mar 5th, '09, 21:38

Germany is supoosed to be the strictest on the planet from what I hear. I heard first hand about a shipment of Chinese fannings that were rejected by German labs, the fannings were then targeted for good ole USA.

The downside of the strict standards, they tend to have greatly reduced selection of teas (and many other products for that matter).
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!

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